Companies that rely on broadcast video and/or audio programs for revenue, such as advertisers, television networks and content providers, desire to know the size and demographic composition of the audiences that consume their programs. Audience measurement companies typically address this need by measuring the demographic composition of a set of statistically selected households and the program consumption habits of the members of those households. For example, audience measurement companies may collect viewing data associated with a selected household by monitoring the audio/video content presented via the television(s) within the household and by identifying which household members consumed (e.g., viewed, listened to, etc.) that content.
Traditionally, broadcast programs have been consumed via the media delivery device at which the broadcast programs are received. However, more recently, recording devices, such as audio cassette players, video cassette recorders (VCRs), set top boxes (STBs), digital video recorders (DVRs), and personal video recorders (PVRs) such as SonicBlue's ReplayTV®, TiVo®, home media networks (e.g., media center PCs), and other devices that permit content to be recorded and replayed in accordance with the desires of individual audience members, have become commonplace. These devices have significantly increased the ability of audience members to space-shift the consumption of broadcast programs (i.e., to record a program at the time of broadcast and consume that same program at a later time and at a location different than the location at which the program was recorded). The ability to space-shift media content has provided media consumers with enhanced power to record programs and distribute the programs to different locations within a monitored site (e.g., a household, a restaurant, a store, etc.)